by M. V. Kallai
“I’m okay, Lee. But what are we going to do now?”
“I have an idea. Get something strong…rope will suffice. Tie them to these chairs after you have searched them for identification and other weapons. Place anything you find in a box.”
“Where are you going?” she asked somewhat frantically as Lee had gotten up and started to leave. “I don’t know if I’ll be able to lift them on my own.”
“Oh, um yes. I have work to do. I will be back in two hours.”
“They might be awake in one!” Dana said.
“They will be secure with rope. Don’t tell them anything.”
“But…” Her voice cracked. “Wait please…what if I can’t…”
“I have to take care of this now.” Lee interrupted. “I will work in Lab D.”
“Take care of what?? Something more important than this?” Dana asked with her voice cracking.
Lee bustled out, a little frustrated with Dana for being so panicked. He let out a short hard sigh as he left.
Dana looked at the men lying on the floor. Her knees were weak again with fear and she felt a tear roll down her cheek, which reminded her of her bloody shoulder. She took her shirt off and saw that the bullet hadn’t gone in, it had only scratched her. She slapped a bandage on it, put her shirt back on, and ran to the storerooms to find some rope. Five minutes later she came back with an empty box and some heavy twine…it was the best thing she could find to tie them with.
Dana approached the men cautiously, looked them over and sized them up. She glanced at the clock. She wasn’t sure exactly how many minutes had passed since Lee had dosed them, but she estimated twenty minutes. That meant she might have an hour and thirteen minutes to do this…approximately. She picked up their guns and set them in the box, then started with the first one who fell. She pulled his boots off and found a knife, then worked her way up, patting his legs and checking pockets. In his right front pocket, she found the answer to the only question on her mind. There it was, a security access card with Camden Riles’ name on it. She cringed at the sight of it, then threw it in the box, removed his belt and jacket then pulled off his facemask. Dana was surprised to find a normal looking, handsome even, guy and not a monster. She put her hands in his waistband and under his shirt. One more small hand gun for the box. On his right hand, was a thin, transparent glove, no doubt encoded with Camden’s fingerprints. She opened his eyelids and sure enough, contacts. She plucked them from his eyes and put them in a cup. When Dana moved on to the other guy, who had tackled Lee, she removed his facemask first. His skin was red and blistered, and he looked so helpless. She grabbed the ice she’d used on Lee, set it on his face and continued to search him.
When everything but their shirts and pants was in the box she was ready to tie them up. She would never be able to lift them into chairs, so she dragged them over to the table and propped them up, back to back, underneath it, with a table leg between them. Knot tying was not in her repertoire of expertise, so she overdid it. After she tied their hands and wrists together behind their backs, she practically mummified them with the twine from toes to neck and tied them to the table with twine going around and in between all four legs. These jerks weren’t going anywhere. After she was satisfied with her work, Dana sat on the floor across the room from them and meticulously went through every item she’d stripped away from them and put in the box. There was no identification, but they were both wearing a small badge on their jacket. It was engraved with the tri-arc government symbol and a sword underneath. She wondered what that could mean; knowing in her heart that there was only one rational explanation…Bearden was responsible for this. Dana felt another tear roll down her cheek and her head became hot with anger. She ripped his shirt off of her body and tore it into as many shreds as she could, crying and cursing at it. She went on like that for more than a minute before she regained a little composure, took a deep breath, and decided to go into denial.
“No, it couldn’t be. He wouldn’t do this to me,” Dana rambled aloud. She could not let her mind believe that Bearden, Bear, had betrayed her like this. Not with what they’d just gone through…and were still going through. She stared at the tied up men, wondering if Lee was going to kill them and if she was going to have to watch. As she sat there, still, for the first time since she heard the intruders, she became aware of her shoulder throbbing with pain and her hands felt raw from the water that had scorched her. She looked down at them, still gripping the shirt shreds, and noticed her naked body. She pulled herself up and went to her room to dress before Lee came back or the men woke up.
When she returned, she sat in a chair and just stared at them until one of the men began to stir. She froze and watched as the men slowly regained consciousness over the next five minutes. They seemed disoriented and seriously pissed off. Then, finally, one of them spoke.
“There you are, you little bitch! Come over here, so I can kill you.” It was the man with the burns on his face. Dana did go over, with some of the remains of Bearden’s shirt balled up in her hands. She shoved a wad of fabric in his mouth to shut him up and then did the same to the other, who still seemed out of it. The burned man’s eyes pierced her with hatred. Dana grabbed her notes and sat back down in the chair to wait for Lee, keeping the men in her sightline. She pretended to be deeply involved in her reading so she wouldn’t have to look at her gagged and bound prisoners. Her shoulder throbbed and her hands were shaking, but she did not show fear on her face.
Finally, Lee came back into the kitchen, still barefoot, with a metal tray holding two large hollow needles, each with a blinking light and attached to tiny glass tubes. Next to the needles was a small glass dish with two red objects that looked like miniscule pill capsules, and a silver device that looked like a one button remote. He looked at the two men, bound from ankle to neck, then over to Dana with a bit of confusion.
“It was the best I could do,” she said.
“Very effective, but not efficient. I need vein access,” Lee replied.
“Oh. I didn’t know. What’s on the tray?” she asked.
“I’ll show you. Find a knife to cut away some of this twine,” Lee said, setting his tray on the table above the prisoner’s heads. Dana grabbed a knife from the kitchen and also picked out one of the guns she had confiscated.
“Just in case,” she said to Lee who had given her another funny look. The two men had obvious fear in their eyes and the shorter one was almost hyperventilating. Drool dripped from the corner of his mouth around the cloth gag and he looked like he might go into hysterics. The other one, with the burned face, remained as still as a statue. Dana almost felt sorry for them…almost. She knelt beside the still one and started cutting through the twine near his elbow. Once the twine was loosened, the man started to try and wriggle his arm free. Dana knelt on his hand and pointed the gun to his head.
“Stop moving!” she said. “Lee, whatever you are going to do, now would be a good time.”
Lee crouched over the man, his glasses sliding down his nose, and slapped the man’s arm so a vein would pop up to the surface of his skin. Then, he stuck him with the large hollow needle with the glass tube attachment.
“Hold this steady, but don’t press the button on the front,” he said to Dana, who immediately grabbed the needle with her free hand, careful not to touch the front of it. With forceps, Lee grabbed one of the tiny red capsules and inserted it into the glass tube. He placed his finger over the top and pressed the lighted blue button on the needle. A slight whoosh of suction pulled the red capsule right into the man’s vein. He made a sound of discomfort that was stifled by the bit of fabric in his mouth. Lee drew out the needle and covered the point of entry with bandage glue.
“There, almost finished,” Lee said. “Tie his arm again and let’s do the other one.” Dana did as instructed and they moved to the other man. Dana and Lee both had to sit on top of him to keep him still enough to get the capsule into his body. He tried to yell the whole time and Dana ha
d to hum a song in her head to distract her from his agony.
When they were finished, Lee stood in front of his two captives with Dana slightly behind him, her hands still wrapped around the gun. For a minute, they said nothing, but Dana got impatient.
“What do we do with them now?” she asked Lee.
“We will ask them some questions and then let them go,” he answered.
“Are you crazy? You want to let them go?”
“The capsule I injected into their blood stream is a live virus in a remote explosive casing. If they do anything that I find dissatisfactory, I will release the virus into their bodies with a touch of a button and they will be dead within a few hours.”
Hearing their possible fates, the hysterical man started fighting against his bindings again and yelling.
“Un-gag the quiet one,” Lee said. Dana walked over and snatched the cloth from his mouth.
“Who are you and what were you sent to accomplish?” Lee asked.
“They’re government, Lee,” Dana said. “I saw the symbol on their badges.”
“That’s right,” the man said. We came for the virus code, but were told the place would be empty. Now untie us and give it to me or you can expect another break in.”
“No,” Lee said.
“No? That’s all you have to say, you crazy old man?”
Lee scratched his head.
“You’ll get nothing from us!” Dana shouted and approached the man until the gun was almost in his face. “Go back to your government assholes and tell them that you found nothing here. Tell them it would be pointless to try again.”
The man let out a thin laugh.
“Not a chance, girlie. You know, I recognize you. Where have I seen your face before?”
“Nowhere,” she said and turned away from him.
“Ahh, yes, I remember, you are a wanted woman, murder right?”
“That’s none of your damn business,” Dana said, and then turned to Lee. “I don’t think this man has an ounce of self-preservation. I think you should just detonate your little capsule.”
Lee was looking out of sorts, so Dana picked up the tiny remote. The man smiled and closed his eyes. The other man, still gagged was making more and more noise in response to her threat. She went over and squatted down in front of him.
“Don’t scream,” she said pulling the cloth from his mouth.
“Don’t kill me!” he begged. “I’ll tell them what you want. I have a family. Just don’t kill me.”
“Now we are getting somewhere,” she said, “Lee, what should we do with the disagreeable one?”
“Nothing. They must both return unharmed or the government will just try again,” Lee said.
“What if he talks? What if he tells them about me?” she asked.
“C’mon, Coop, these people are crazy,” the hysterical man pleaded with his partner. “Just do what they want. I’m committed to my duty and the government, but I can’t die this way. It’s not worth it, man.”
Lee and Dana looked at each other then at the disagreeable man who was apparently called “Coop”. He showed slight concern for his partner. Lee took the gun from her and with a quick motion pointed it back to the disagreeable man’s head and started to pull the trigger. The man flinched away.
“See, he does have self-preservation,” Lee said. “We have nothing to worry about. They don’t even have to lie. They did not find a virus code here.”
Dana went over to Lee and took the gun back from him. She locked the rest of their weapons in a storage closet and handed them back their badges as Lee untied them with one hand, holding tight to the remote with the other.
“If there is any suspicion about this young lady being here, I will press this button,” Lee warned.
Dana did not trust either of them untied and kept the gun at the ready. It was almost dawn when the men left the lab willingly, with Lee and Dana at their heels. And when they were just about to close and lock the doors behind their intruders, Dana asked,
“Who was it that sent you here exactly?”
“Major Mace Magner.”
Chapter Fifty-Five
It’s Over
That same morning, in the high office of the Daxian government, Director Fitzhugh opened a small brown envelope he found waiting for him on his desk when he came in. There was no indication of who it was from, but it was marked ‘Urgent’. Inside, he found the recording Maeve had taken of the biomachine’s attack on Maile and the unfortunate fate of their handlers. The director watched it through four times, knowing full well who was behind the unauthorized attack. He made a quick call to the regent, and then called Colonel Cline at the TRU Building.
“Good morning, Director.” Cline said when he recognized the voice on the line.
“Colonel, I want to congratulate you on the efficiency of your work at TRU. Getting that outdoor facility ready for occupation for the weaponry program as quickly as you did is no less than remarkable.”
“Thank you. It was necessary.”
“I appreciate your ability to do what needs to be done, Cline, which is why I’ve called you today.”
“I see,” Cline replied, wondering what sort of task the director wanted from him. “What is it that you need?”
“As of today, the biomer experiment has officially come to an end. The unit will focus only on the new physics and space travel division until the rest of the facility can be re-designated. And Cline, I need you to personally shut it down. Arrange for the outdoor facility and the sub-basement to be cemented in. I want no evidence of those uncontrollable beasts in Daxia. Then, I want every bit of the leftover biomer that is in that building on the next shuttle to Myris. Get rid of it all.”
“Does General Pike know about this, sir?” Cline asked.
“He will within the hour. But I need you to get this done. Tyrine will never submit to our government if our own weapons are turning against us.”
“There are no shuttles currently scheduled for Myris. The mining was stopped and the colonization project, well you know about that, sir, since it was you who cut the funding.”
“Details. Meaningless details. The shuttles will get the funding they need. You just start with filling in those areas and taking an inventory on the leftover material. I want to know how many shuttles will be necessary to get that stuff off of this planet.”
“Will do, Director Fitzhugh. You have a nice day,” Colonel Cline said.
“You, too, Colonel. I’ll be in touch,” the director said and hung up.
Colonel Cline got up and locked his office door. He didn’t want to be in the wake of General Pike’s wrath when he got the news. Cline felt relieved that the program was being shut down. He agreed with the Director and did not trust the biomachines in a confined area, much less in war. He believed in the Daxian government and wanted the Tyrinian takeover to happen as much as anyone, but he had known from the first biomachine activation that these weapons were not ready yet. He was sorry they were going to give up on them, though. He’d spent the last five years of his life working to build this program, and was proud to be chosen to bring it to a close. The one thing he didn’t understand, though, was why the director had come to him for the job and not General Pike.
Several floors up, Colonel Ganesh sat at his desk organizing his thoughts about the space travel division aloud, while Quinn wrote his words on paper. They were preparing a statement for the next press report about Camden Riles and his progress with simplified space travel. They didn’t have much to say, since they were no closer to being able to bend space than they ever were, but they needed to make it sound like Camden and his team were on the road to success…per General Pike’s orders. Ganesh kept glancing at the door to his office like he was waiting for someone to walk in and it didn’t take long for Quinn to notice.
“Are you expecting someone, Colonel?”
“What? No, why do you ask?”
“I just noticed you watching the door, that’s all,” Quinn said
.
“Hmph. I…um…well, I was just thinking about Sergeant Leitner. He usually drops in a couple times a week and I haven’t seen him in a while. That’s all,” Ganesh replied.
“Sir, didn’t you hear?”
“Hear what?” Ganesh asked with a straight face, despite the gush of panic he felt in response to Quinn’s heavy tone.
“Bearden’s gone. Major Magner had him dismissed yesterday. There was an administrative memo.”
“What!” Ganesh shouted as he stood and slapped the desk with both hands. Quinn jumped, startled by the colonel’s reaction. “You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Ganesh continued. “That sneaky son-of-a…” He squinted his eyes at Quinn. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“Sir, I’m sorry. I just assumed you knew,” Quinn said, “And anyway, aren’t you overreacting a little? I mean, I know you were kind of his mentor, but he’s a scientist. Not even a real soldier.”
“What do you know of real? You’re a…sp…well…you’re nothing more than a secretary!” Quinn furrowed his eyebrows and gave Ganesh a suspicious look that he quickly masked as shame from his belittling words. Ganesh couldn’t believe he’d almost slipped up, hoping Quinn didn’t notice. Quinn stood up and put his hands behind his back.
“Sir, I’m sorry I’ve outspoken. I should have known this would upset you. You always seemed so pleased to see Sergeant Leitner. Why don’t I go and get you some coffee while you process the news?”
